Rationality in medicine: an explication.

Various meanings of "rational" implicitly and explicitly suggested in this issue's articles are abstracted and stated. Two accounts of rationality are shown to be able to explain most uses of "rational": the "cool moment" account and a more objective account. The former is examined and modified, but still found inadequate. The objective account of rational is developed, taking "irrational" as the basic concept. "Irrational" is given content in terms of a list, and "rational" is subsequently defined as "not irrational". Reasons and motives are defined and distinguished. The advantages of the objective account are explored and some challenges to it are answered.